1877 by Michael A. Bellesiles America's Year of Living Violently

In 1877, a decade after the Civil War, not only was the United States gripped by a deep depression, but the country was also in the throes of nearly unimaginable violence and upheaval marking the end of the brief period known as Reconstruction and a return to white rule across the South. In the wake of the contested presidential election of 1876, white supremacist mobs swept across the South, killing and driving out the last of the Reconstruction state governments. A strike involving millions of railroad workers turned violent as it spread from coast-to-coast, and for a moment seemed close to toppling the nation’s economic structure.

In 1877, celebrated historian Michael Bellesiles reveals that the fires of that fated year also fueled a hothouse of cultural and intellectual innovation. Bellesiles relates the story of 1877 not just through dramatic events, but also through the lives of famous and little-known Americans.

Michael Bellesiles teaches history at Central Connecticut State University. He is a nationally known historian who has been vilified, many think unfairly. This book will reestablish his reputation. He is the author of numerous books, including Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture. He lives in Connecticut.

Unrated Critic Reviews for 1877

Publishers Weekly

That single year, according to historian Bellesiles, saw an unprecedented surge in lynchings, racism, homicides, army attacks on Indians, labor violence (including a near national general strike), quack theories to explain it all, and a political crisis whose resolution on the backs of African-Am...

Project MUSE

Bellesiles unpacks his thesis through a discussion of the signal events of 1877, including the final demise of Reconstruction, the Plains Indian wars, the "tramp scare," widespread labor unrest, and a presumed surge in homicides.